You did very well with your bowl, indeed.
And you learned a lot in the process, which is even better.

There are but two ways to hold work in a chuck: on a tenon or in a recess.
There are many other ways of holding bowls on a lathe, from faceplates to
between centers to jam chucks to vacuum chucking. All have their place and
use, all have those who swear by (and at) them. Explore all of them, keep
what works for you. Look at the books and videos of Raffin, Conover and
Jordon for starters. And always keep looking to refine your techniques.

Michael Latcha - at home in Redford, MI


wrote in message
...
I greatly appreciate all the feedback.

I went a head and moved forward with the scraper and ended up with a
pretty nice bowl.

http://www.skehan.org/wood/1.jpg

I've also decided to take a hard look at my technique. I've revisited
some books and seen where I have a lot of room to improve.

I'd like to know more about alternative ways to hold the bowl on the
chuck.

Thanks again,

Joe


On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 10:34:35 -0600, wrote:

Hi all,

I'm new to turning (so that may be the problem here...). I've been
practicing on some mahogany I had around and have gotten fairly
successful. Well, I picked up a block of walnut and haven't been so
lucky with it. I'm trying to hollow out a shallow bowl and my
fingernail gouge quickly catches and throws the bowl off the lathe.
This is bad. I'd really appreciate some help here. Here's what I've
observed:

1. The stock is being held by a nova chuck expanded into a recess in
the bottom of the bowl. It's held pretty tightly.

2. My 1/2" fingernail gouge is brand new, sharpened with a tormek
jig. Sure seems sharp to me. I've never used it before, so technique
could easily be the problem.

3. The walnut is very dry.

4. If I use a scraper, I can be pretty successful with the hollowing.

5. If I use the gouge, it catches brutally and throws the bowl.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks,
Joe